Posts for: April, 2014

One of the great benefits that patients with implants enjoy is their imperviousness to decay: unlike a natural tooth, bacteria have no effect on the materials in an implant’s construction. That doesn’t mean, however, you can become lax in your hygiene habits — although the implants may not be susceptible to disease, the surrounding gum tissue and bone are. If those tissues become infected you could start to lose the implant attachment and, as it progresses, the implant itself.

In fact, the gum tissue that surrounds the implant may be more susceptible to infection than those around natural teeth. Teeth maintain a connection with the jawbone through the periodontal ligament. Besides securing the tooth, the gum tissue has fibrous attachments to the tooth to help the gum tissue endure a lot of wear and tear and resist the invasion of bacteria and food particles. Implants are anchored directly into the jawbone (where bone eventually grows and attaches to the titanium implant surface) and don’t develop an attachment with the ligament. Implants, therefore, don’t have the benefit of resistance to bacteria and food particles that natural teeth receive through these fibrous attachments.

As a result, patients with implants need to establish a conscientious habit of effective oral hygiene. Daily removal of bacterial plaque from teeth surfaces through brushing and flossing (and semi-annual office cleanings and checkups) greatly reduce the risk of infection and subsequent inflammation. It’s also important to monitor the condition of your gums, especially around implants. If you begin to notice bleeding, red or swollen gums, or other signs of possible gum disease, you should contact us as soon as possible for an assessment.

Proper care for implants and their supporting tissues is just as necessary, and perhaps more so, than it is for natural teeth. By providing that care, you’ll help ensure years of effective service from your implants.

You may be considering dental implants for a lot of reasons: durability, functionality and imperviousness to decay. But perhaps the winning reason is how they will make you look — their life-like quality can restore a smile marred by missing or disfigured teeth. Achieving that result, though, requires your dental team to determine beforehand the state of your bone and gums, and treat any conditions that would interfere with the final result.

The first area to look at is the amount of bone available to support the implant. An adequate amount is necessary not only to stabilize the implant, but to also ensure proper placement needed to achieve the best “smile” result. Your specialist, then, will take steps to protect available bone during procedures, or even aid in building up the bone structure by inserting grafting materials that encourage new bone growth.

The degree of bone volume in adjacent natural teeth is also important because it can greatly affect the health of the papillae. This is the triangular-shaped gum tissue that occurs between each tooth that gives normal teeth their arched appearance. Insufficient bone in these areas could cause the papillae not to regenerate properly around the implant site, which creates unsightly dark spaces in the gum tissue known as “black hole disease.”

We must next consider the quality and health of your gum tissue. Patients whose gum tissue tends to be thin face difficulties during cosmetic surgical procedures; their thinner tissues are also more prone for objects behind them to be visible, including metal or other crown materials.

Our aim is an implant crown emerging from the surrounding gum tissue just as a natural tooth would. To achieve this requires knowing first what we have to work with regarding your bone and gums, and to address any issues that are problematic. One aid in this process is to affix a temporary “prototype” crown on the implant to wear while the permanent crown is manufactured. This allows you to “test-drive” the new look, and make adjustments in the final product regarding color and materials.

Accounting for all these factors — and then making adjustments along the way — will help ensure the final crown meets your expectations for function and appearance.

Florence Henderson, star of one of television's most beloved situation comedies, is still actively engaged in a variety of projects at 75-plus years of age. Her bright smile was part of her character as Carol Brady in The Brady Bunch, a popular sitcom that played for five seasons from 1969 to 1974. Though the show was discontinued, syndicated episodes continue to play in the U.S. and 122 other countries.

“I played Carol as the mother I always wished I had,” she told Dear Doctor magazine. Her portrayal of mother and wife in a blended family with six children won her the Smithsonian Institution's TV Land Pop Culture Icon Award, which is on display in the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.

After her successes on Broadway and in television, she was selected for numerous product endorsements, and The Wall Street Journal ranked her #5 in their top ten television endorsers based on viewer satisfaction. One of the products she endorsed was Polident, a brand of denture cleaners and adhesives. However, Henderson has revealed that she has her own natural teeth and does not wear dentures. Her advice to others who want to keep their natural teeth is to pay attention to prevention. “I think the most important thing one can do as with any health issue is prevention,” she said. “Flossing, brushing, and regular dental checkups are vitally important if you want to keep your natural teeth.”

When she was 22, she says, she had four impacted wisdom teeth removed at the same time. This experience made her aware of the importance of dental care, and since then she has had a checkup every six months. Wherever she travels, she says that she always has mouthwash, dental floss, toothpaste, and a toothbrush on the set.